Rupal & Jason

For Rupal Bhakta and Jason Grammer, one of the most exciting aspects of planning a wedding was anticipating having all of their loved ones together to celebrate. “This was the first time that all of our friends from every stage of our lives were able to come together in one location,” Rupal says. “We wanted our wedding to be a small and intimate ceremony in our front yard with very close friends and immediate family, but we also wanted a large party for our friends!”

To be able to accommodate a small-scale ceremony and sizeable reception, the couple split their wedding into two days of celebration—a ceremony and welcome party at their house in Roland on Friday followed by a reception for more than 300 guests at Robinson Center the next evening. “We had heard the Robinson Center was scheduled to re-open after years of renovation. I called the venue and we booked it immediately,” Rupal says. “We absolutely had to have a perfect location that showed off a great view in Little Rock as many of our guests were visiting Arkansas for the first time.”

Jason’s son, Zachary, played a role in his father and stepmother’s wedding ceremony.

The couple’s small ceremony, which took place outside their home, incorporated both Hindu and western traditions.

A five-tier cake by Art Is In Cakes featured chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream and caramel filling on the first, third, and fifth tiers; the second was a butter cake with lemon buttercream and lemon filling, and the fourth was a champagne cake with raspberry filling and vanilla bean buttercream.

Catering for the reception was provided by both The Doubletree Hotel and Taj Mahal. “We picked food we thought would be crowd pleasing and familiar to novice Indian food diners,” Rupal says.

“We closed down the dance party! We left when they made us leave,” Rupal says.